EXTINCT CATS. 



447 



obtained skulls of the great crested cat (F. cristata) which must have been fully as 

 large as the tiger, but appears to show signs ,of affinity with the jaguar. Equally 

 large cats (F. atrox and F. augusta) have left their remains in the strata of the 

 same geological period in the United States. Numerous extinct cats of this genus 

 also occur in the Pliocene deposits of France and other countries on the Continent 

 of Europe, but these are of smaller dimensions, as also are those found in beds 

 belonging to the upper half of the preceding Miocene period, below which true 

 cats are unknown. The Siwalik Hills have also yielded the remains of a cat which 

 is believed to indicate the existence of a species of hunting-leopard at the period 

 when their rocks were in process of formation. 



Passing on not only to extinct species but likewise to extinct genera, we may 

 notice first those remarkable creatures known as sabre-toothed cats (Machcerodus). 

 These cats, some of which were equal in size to the 

 lion and tiger, are all characterised by the enormous 

 development of the tusks, or canine teeth of the 

 upper jaw, which formed long sabre-like weapons 

 projecting far below the lower jaw, as shown in our 

 greatly reduced figure of the skull of one of the 

 South American species. The great length of the 

 upper tusks must have completely prevented them 

 from biting in the ordinary manner, as, when the 

 mouth was opened to its widest extent, these teeth 

 would still have reached to the lower jaw. Hence 

 the only mode in which they could have been used 

 would appear to have been as striking or tearing 

 weapons when the mouth was closed. In some species 

 the cutting power of these teeth was increased by 

 their sharp edges being finely notched like a saw. 



These sabre-toothed cats seem to have abounded 



in the Pleistocene and Pliocene epochs of the earth's history, their remains having 

 been obtained from the cavern and other superficial deposits of England, the 

 Continent, Persia, India, and North and South America. They are also known 

 from strata of much older age, having been found in France in rocks belonging 

 to the upper part of the Eocene period. 



In the Miocene strata of the United States, and also in the Miocene and Upper 

 Eocene rocks of Europe, there are found more generalised cats, many of which differ 

 from existing forms in having three or four (instead of two) premolar teeth in the 

 lower jaw; while some of them also have an extra molar tooth behind the lower 

 flesh-tooth. In the presence of these additional teeth, they approach the other 

 families of Carnivores ; and this approximation is also shown by the structure of some 

 of their teeth. Thus in many of them the upper flesh-tooth, instead of having three 

 distinct lobes in the blade as in existing cats, has but two such lobes, as in a dog. 

 In another form the claws, although still retractile, had not the bony sheaths of the 

 modern cats. The animals to which these early cats seem to make the nearest approach 

 are the civets, thus suggesting that the Cat family may have been derived from 

 primitive Carnivores, more or less closely allied to the modern civets and their allies. 



SIDE VIEW OF THE SKULL OF THE 

 SOUTH AMERICAN SABRE-TOOTHED 



CAT. (Greatly reduced.) 



